{"id":8545,"date":"2013-10-28T09:23:47","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T13:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8545"},"modified":"2013-10-28T10:07:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T14:07:20","slug":"letter-casd-board-member-addresses-cciu-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8545","title":{"rendered":"Letter: CASD board member addresses CCIU issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Letters1\"<\/a>I want to correct a number of misconceptions surrounding the School Board\u2019s decision to not engage the CCIU in our search for a Superintendent. \u00a0The following represents my opinion and has not been endorsed by either the Board or the District.<\/p>\n

The Board had, in fact, anticipated utilizing the services of the CCIU in our search.\u00a0 However, during our interview with them, CCIU personnel dictated an extensive list of, what they classified as, non-negotiable demands for their acceptance of the engagement. \u00a0I asked Mr. Joseph O\u2019Brien, the CCIU team leader, if he was open to compromise on certain of the conditions. \u00a0Mr. O\u2019Brien stated that he was not; and that if the CASD Board were not prepared to accept the CCIU conditions, as enumerated, in their entirety, it would be, \u201ca deal killer\u201d from the CCIU\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 The Board respects the CCIU\u2019s prerogative in the matter and this is writing is not to be construed as a criticism of either the CCIU\u2019s right to establish the terms of their engagements or CCIU\u2019s decision to do so in this instance.\u00a0 I also want to be clear that the phase \u201cdeal killer\u201d was mine, but that Mr. O\u2019Brien agreed that it accurately reflected the CCIU\u2019s position vis a vie the conditions requisite for\u00a0 their engagement. \u00a0That stance made it impossible for the Board to seriously entertain the CCIU proposal further.<\/p>\n

Additionally, during the course of those discussions, Mr. O\u2019Brien disclosed that he was currently serving as the mentor of one of the candidates for the very position for which he was proposing to conduct the search.\u00a0 He also further informed us that he had had two recent conversations with that mentee, during which he discussed the situation extant in the District with them.\u00a0 I then asked Mr. O\u2019Brien, outright, if he would be willing to terminate that mentorship, should the District elect to engage the CCIU for the search.\u00a0 He stated unambiguously that he would not terminate that relationship under any circumstances and that the Board would have to accept that decision if we wished to utilize CCIU services for this search.<\/p>\n

Many have mentioned the impressive resume of the CCIU in participating in other very successful searches, most notably, Downingtown, Radnor and Unionville.\u00a0 Those achievements are undeniable. \u00a0However, none of the aforementioned tasks reflect the type of challenge currently faced by our District. \u00a0That is not to suggest that the CCIU\u2019s strict adherence to their own structured formula cannot be effective.\u00a0 It merely reflects the Board\u2019s position that we need to maintain the flexibility that will invariably be required of us to identify and hire the best candidate during what must be a national search.<\/p>\n

While we might all agree that Mr. O\u2019Brien\u2019s loyalty to his mentee is particularly admirable; the very existence of that mentorship unequivocally disqualifies the CCIU from any further consideration for the engagement.\u00a0 This decision of the Board in no way reflects upon either the competency or the integrity of either Mr. O\u2019Brien or the CCIU.\u00a0 They remain in our highest regard and we intend to avail ourselves of their impressive collective skill-set during future endeavors.<\/p>\n

Joseph Dunn, Jr.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Member<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coatesville Area School District Board of Education<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor, I want to correct a number of misconceptions surrounding the School Board\u2019s decision to not engage the CCIU in our search for a Superintendent. \u00a0The following represents my opinion and has not been endorsed by either the Board or the District. The Board had, in fact, anticipated utilizing the services of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,301],"tags":[166,10,29,2911],"class_list":["post-8545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-board-of-education","tag-chester-county-intermediate-unit","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-superintendent-search"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}